BEING A GENTLEMAN

Imagine blending your favorite coffee shop, clothing store and man cave all into one? Sebastian Tatano-Ramirez had the same idea and his new concept store, Brothers & Brawlers in Wynwood, has brought the concept to life. Doughnuts included.

Tatano-Ramirez started off with a sunglass line, Dirocco Eyewear, which he dubbed the first complete carbon design available on the market. Instead of selling his glasses to distributors around town, he created his own space to sell out of with a man’s touch. The space is big enough to fit a Land Rover — which he did, but then sold. It also has a suit room known as Brawlers Row; a coffee bar; and a space in the back to chill and take in all the action your eyes can handle. And, yes, everything in the store is for sale.

In July, Tatano-Ramirez moved his family down from New York, where he worked as the creative director for designer Alexander Nash. A dapper man who sports a forest green three-piece suit in sunny Miami, Tatano-Ramirez said style runs in his family. His father always dressed to impress and his grandfather was a dandy. When the opportunity came to make the move to Miami, he didn’t hesitate. The store opened in October at the Wynwood location.

“We were thinking about opening up our flagship store for Dirocco, but I didn’t want to do something conventional,” Tatano-Ramirez said. “It’s not intentional, but it just doesn’t happen for me.”

“When it came time to open up the store, it just didn’t make sense to me to line the walls with eyewear and put posters up with models to convey a lifestyle,” Tatano-Ramirez said. “Everything we do is who we are, so it was natural to me that it should be this giant poster you can walk into where we can cultivate creativity and community by offering people a place to work out of and just hang out. Even if they don’t come buy sunglasses, they can still come use our space for whatever it is they need to do, and ultimately I think that’s what we did.”

Tatano-Ramirez likes to have a hand in everything at Brothers & Brawlers. He even sketched out and designed the layout true to his vision. Re-purposed vintage couches sit against the walls; French tin tops the ceilings; and even the bathroom has a salvaged vintage sink dating back a few decades.

The intention was to create a space in which both women and men would be able to gather inspiration. Tatano-Ramirez even enlisted the help of French-born Miami designer Steve Harivel to co-craft the lounge in the back or what he calls “Club Harivel.”

“Everything was made to look like it was already there,” Tatano-Ramirez said. “Our window walls that divide the space up are old factory windows from Chicago, our lights in Club Harivel are street lights from France from the 1930s, the lights from the coffee bar are old sconces from Chicago that we retrofitted to hang as bar lights. Everything is intentional, even the lights in the retail space are holophane lights from an asylum from the ’20s. It’s meant to look like it’s effortless, but it definitely isn’t.

Brothers & Brawlers customer Alfonso Duran said he found out about the store through Instagram and thought it was a unique idea.

“It’s mysterious; there’s so much cool stuff that it intrigued me. I especially like that they are bringing back the fashion aesthetic and it’s a particular kind of look,” Duran said. “From a guy’s perspective, you learn about motorcycles, clothing, and you’re drinking coffee, they want to highlight all the traits a gentleman should have and what a modern man should be.”